It's pretty clear that Keith (Kith?) hasn't talked to Pol or Mike, the Cornish language education officers. I have, Kith. It might be worth your while doing so, too. It might just open your eyes a little to the reality of the situation, and make you a tad less jaded. Granted, it's very early days but, from little acorns, etc.....

Have a geek at this Factotum: http://vimeo.com/18760085
More than 90% under 30 I would say. They may not all speak Cornish fluently or at all but they're among the young generation who are making Cornish fun, making it 'cool'. Plenty of young bands out there too. Crowns for one, also Hanterhir who sing some songs in Cornish. Building from the bottom up. You get kids into being Cornish and what Cornwall is and make them proud of it by such means as above. A dusty old fart in a classroom ain't cutting it, so we're lucky that we have such ambassadors, as above. Films, music and similar media is how you access the young.
You paint a depressing picture and while I see where you're coming from, to some degree, the evidence I see before me, reads different. Young (and not so young) people who are proud of being Cornish are about and spreading the word. There's plenty out there for people with open eyes...

As long as a hundred of us remain alive, we shall never give in to the domination of the English. We fight not for glory, not for wealth nor honours but only and alone for freedom, which no good man surrenders but with his life...

Thank you for the link. I haven't look at the film yet. I did search Vimeo for Cornish material not long ago and failed to find this item, probably not properly tagged. Nor for that matter has it been mentioned here before, or anywhere else (or did I miss it?) FWIW the film was uploaded in January this year but has received only two comments, both in English. Now if you go and look on You-Tube for example for items in the other Celtic languages, even musical items, a great many of the many comments they receive are in the that or other Celtic languages. This I take as good evidence that there are people out there willing to use these languages as a normal means of communication. This does not seem to be the case for Cornish however. But please prove me wrong ...

Then there's Matthew Clarke's band (I've just done a mellotron backing for one of their songs in Cornish), and his "Radyo an Kernewgva". Kith (or is it Kidh, as they do like -dh finals?) needs to get out and open his bleary old eyeballs a bit more. There is a lot going on - far more than ever before. And a good deal of it is aimed at the young.

Marhak wrote:Then there's Matthew Clarke's band (I've just done a mellotron backing for one of their songs in Cornish), and his "Radyo an Kernewgva". Kith (or is it Kidh, as they do like -dh finals?) needs to get out and open his bleary old eyeballs a bit more. There is a lot going on - far more than ever before. And a good deal of it is aimed at the young.

Da yw genev klywes bones devnydhyow yn-fedrys orth an re yowynk.

Anselm

'Against a promontory my ship' Rump L. Stiltz-Kinn

'With regret I feel that unless you have a serious change of heart your presence at the Mennaye on Cornish Pirates match days is no longer desired.'Rod Coward
CEO
Cornish Pirates

Links, Craig, evidence. When, where, who ... Remember if I can't see it, nor can anyone else outside whatever charmed circle you inhabit. Part of my problem with the Cornish language clique is that they spend too much time within their own little bubble and forget that to the rest of the world, even alas most of the time to other Celts, they're completely invisible.

If the kids are using modern media, then the results ought to be visible on the internet. Just been looking at some of the short films being made in Scotland, many by schoolkids. Quite a few similar coming out of Ireland now too. These are exactly the sort of technical and artistic skills that should be being developed in Cornwall, so that we might have something approaching a economy one day, never mind a culture ... I admit I've been watching these rather than checking out the Cornish offering you pointed me to.

FWIW btw "Keith" is a rather recent name, based on a Scottish place name hence the Scots spelling in 'ei'. English people not uncommonly misspell it with 'ie'. I went there once, to Keith, the place is a complete dead end dump, and I got a flat tyre to boot. I suspect it may derive somehow from the Celtic word for 'wood' CC /kait-/ or /keit-/ which gives _coed_ and _koez_ and 'chet-' in English place names. The -t- > -th- looks like a Gaelic change, but I've never found such a word in Gaelic, (it would have to be something like *caoth or *ciath~céith) so maybe it came from Pictish ?

factotum wrote:Links, Craig, evidence. When, where, who ... Remember if I can't see it, nor can anyone else outside whatever charmed circle you inhabit. Part of my problem with the Cornish language clique is that they spend too much time within their own little bubble and forget that to the rest of the world, even alas most of the time to other Celts, they're completely invisible.

If the kids are using modern media, then the results ought to be visible on the internet. Just been looking at some of the short films being made in Scotland, many by schoolkids. Quite a few similar coming out of Ireland now too. These are exactly the sort of technical and artistic skills that should be being developed in Cornwall, so that we might have something approaching a economy one day, never mind a culture ... I admit I've been watching these rather than checking out the Cornish offering you pointed me to.